Plastic is one of the largest pollution sources on the planet, and it takes hundreds of years to degrade naturally. According to foreign media reports, researchers at Yale University's School of Environment and the University of Maryland have used wood by-products to create more durable and sustainable bioplastics to solve one of the world's most pressing environmental problems.

Assistant Professor Yuan Yao of Yale University's School of Environment and Professor Liangbing Hu of the University of Maryland Center for Materials Innovation and others collaborated on research to deconstruct the porous matrix in natural wood into a slurry. The researchers said that the manufactured biomass plastic exhibits high mechanical strength and stability when containing liquids, as well as UV resistance. It can also be recycled in the natural environment or safely biodegraded. Compared with petroleum-based plastics and other biodegradable plastics, its life cycle environmental impact is smaller.

Yao said: "We have developed a simple and straightforward manufacturing process that can use wood to produce bio-based plastics and has good mechanical properties."

In order to make the slurry mixture, the researchers used wood chips as raw materials and used a biodegradable and recyclable deep eutectic solvent to deconstruct the loose porous structure in the powder. In the obtained mixture, due to the nano-scale entanglement and hydrogen bonding between the regenerated lignin and the cellulose micro/nano fiber, the material has a high solid content and a high viscosity, and can be cast and rolled without cracking.

The researchers then conducted a comprehensive life cycle assessment to test the environmental impact of bioplastics and ordinary plastics. The results showed that when the bioplastic sheet was buried in the soil, the material was broken after two weeks and completely degraded after three months; in addition, the researchers said that the bioplastics can also be broken down into slurry through mechanical stirring. Thus, DES is recovered and reused. Yao said: "The advantage of this plastic is that it can be completely recycled or biodegraded. We have minimized the material waste that flows into nature."

Professor Liangbing Hu said that this bioplastic has a wide range of applications, for example, it can be molded into a film for use in plastic bags and packaging. This is one of the main uses of plastics and one of the causes of garbage. In addition, the researchers said that this bioplastic can be molded into different shapes, so it is also expected to be used in automobile manufacturing.

The team will continue to explore the impact of expanding production scale on forests, because large-scale production may require the use of large amounts of wood, which may have profound impacts on forests, land management, ecosystems, and climate change. The research team has worked with forest ecologists to create a forest simulation model that links the forest growth cycle to the wood-plastic manufacturing process.

Reprinted from Gasgoo